What exactly, and I'll give an example here, does this mean?

Am/G? The slash indicates to play both or either or?

A minor chord ADD/ G note
probably in the bass

Yes, its an Am chord with an added G bass note on the low E string, 3rd fret.

J

69 jaguar wrote:

Yes, its an A chord with an added G bass note on the low E string, 3rd fret.

J

you forgot to mention minor
payback!

Sorry, I used to work at "Typo's are US".  Bad habits are hard to break.
Fixed.....

Oh, it's Am7 or Am/G

Not the same....re-read Jag's post that explains how to make the Am/G chord craz.

GuitarZen

...technically, it's an Am "triad" chord with a G note 'added' in the bass (lowest note played).

Kinda looks like a C that got punched and now is all over the place lol

L

These "slash" chords (has nothing to do with the GUY "Slash"...!) are usually found in situations that make the progression sound smoother. A common progression that is enhanced with a slash chord would be: G, D, Em - so, you'd use G, D/F#, then the Em. This makes a mini "bass-line" on the guitar and is way more creative. (BTW lots of people just put their thumb over the board to play the F# while fingering the D normal, ala Hendrix and Clapton).
So, there are actually 2 types of slash chords that advancing players should know about...
1. The easiest and probably the most common is that the slash "bass-note" (always to the RIGHT of the slash) is just a PART of the chord (chord is to the left of the slash). Think of this, when a chord DOESN'T have a slash, what note does a bassist play? The same note as the chord letter right? So if you actually put it in slash terminology it might be C/C as in it's a "C chord" with the bassist playing the note "C". Pretty silly, but then by the same token, if it says C/E - Same deal but now the bassist is 'directed' to play an E instead of the C he'd normally do. The "E" bass note in this case is just the 3rd of the C chord, so, that's NOT weird.
2. (Now here's where it DOES get weird) If you want to experiment with a "brand new sound" try putting a bass note under a chord that has nothing to do with the chord. Such as B/G or even E/Bb now THESE are really 'new' sounds, but we'd use the same terminology to get them... So, the formula is: chord/bassnote.
You've got the two types, simple and  "out-there". Sometimes when you add a note in the bass it actually can 'create' a new legitimate chord, such as Am/G actually technically creates an Am7 in 3rd inversion (as in adding G to the chord makes it Am7, adding it UNDERNEATH makes it a 7th chord in "inversion" ie some other note than its 'namer' as the lowest sound...) But there is no need to write it as Am7/G - but you COULD - the problem is if everybody is loading up on that new note it loses it's 'thunder' man! But usually slash chords are not "stable" chords in a song, they're usually on their way to "somewhere else".
One last issue: If it's a directive to a bassist why does a guitar player even need to do it? Actually as guitarists we usually DO play the slash note as OUR lowest note but in some cases if you are just not that concerned with it you can just omit it and play the chord. Some Broadway show music is so rife with them it's just ridiculous to try and add every one. Case by case, I say... Cheers, and yes, I do wonder if Slash knows about this stuff... ?

Hello eltalon, welcome to chordbook. Did you notice the chat feature? Sounds like you know your music theory and there are many that would love to pick your brain, so if you like, drop by sometime, everyone would be glad to have you there.

Ok, let's see if my instructor taught me well...the fingering, X 0 2 2 1 0 is an Am triad. By 'Adding' the G note, third fret, 6th string, we now have, 3 0 2 2 1 0 and we can call that Am/G, which goes to post one in the thread, giving Craz the answer to his question, part of which were guesses as to what Am/G means when seen in tabs (presumably).

I noticed in our own chordfinder that when i pluged in the G note, third fret, 6th string, two chord names appeared when i clicked the 'search' feature. Those are (and with the same exact fingering, i.e. 3 0 2 2 1 0) the Am7 as you've mentioned but interestingly, the same fingering can also be named C 6 add13. Why is this? Well, the addition of the 7th degree note, (G, third fret, 6th string)  in the presence of the A note, second fret, 4th string, gives a 13th degree note, or is 'tone' a more accurate word?

Naming the 3 0 2 2 1 0 fingering C 6 add13 would be correct, but i'm presuming that to start with, we would have started from the C6 chord, 3 X 2 2 1 0 and then 'added' the open 5th string (A note) providing the 13th degree note to complete the chord shown as C6 add13 fingered as 3 0 2 2 1 0 which brings us full circle back to our Am/G. So as you've mentioned, what chords are named can depend on a few things like not 'stepping on the bass player' (words from my instructor) and as i've mentioned, depending on where the chord started getting it's changes for lack of a better expression. I hope i've got this all correct and as always, if anyone sees errors, please correct me since i want to continue learning.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

thats the bass note...I always play that note in situations where I am playing bass.....in G D/F# Em for isntance I play G F# E on bass....so its essentially changing the extension of the chord

xaviersky wrote:

..in G D/F# Em for isntance I play G F# E on bass....so its essentially changing the extension of the chord

...a descending bass run example of voice leading.